David Farrar: The Parliament Bill

A bill for parliamentary nerds.

The Government has introduced a bill called The Parliament Bill. It brings together into one law the Clerk of the House of Representatives Act 1988, Parliamentary Service Act 2000, Members of Parliament (Remuneration and Services) Act 2013 and Parliamentary Privilege Act 2014. So just on e Act to refer to, instead of four.

There are also a few policy changes, ranging from trivial to significant. They include:

• A statutory basis for precinct security arrangements to provide parliamentary security officers (PSOs) with statutory powers of consent search, denial of entry, temporary seizure of specified items, and temporary detention (subject to statutory limitations).

• A new funding model for the parliamentary agencies, based on the Officers of Parliament model, recognising that the parliamentary agencies are part of the legislative branch of government, not the Executive, and that it is therefore appropriate to have a funding model that does not rely on executive power.

• transfer responsibility for determining members’ and eligible candidates’ accommodation services from the Remuneration Authority to the Speaker

• set out guiding principles applying to recipients of public funds (that is, members and Ministers) in the legislation:

• remove the requirement for members’ international travel costs to be met only from party leadership funding, which will allow party and group funding or an individual member’s funding to be used for this purpose.

• recognising, as dependants of a member, adult children who have a disability that means that they require ongoing daily care and remain dependent on their parents:

• Extends statutory immunity for good faith acts and omissions to staff of the Office of the Clerk.

• The Public Service Commissioner would be removed from most employment matters (as parliamentary staff are not public servants). T

• Requires the Parliamentary Service to take members’ wishes into account when appointing political office staff. It gives the parliamentary agencies the ability to ask potential appointees for corporate roles about their political activities, in order to maintain organisational neutrality and reputation.

• transferring the Clerk’s certification role under the Citizens Initiated Referenda Act 1993 to the Electoral Commission:

• removing the upper age limit of 68 years for the Clerk:

• aligning the restrictions on the role of the chief executive of the Parliamentary Service to that

• increasing the term of a chief executive of the Parliamentary Service to 7 years—a chief executive will be eligible for reappointment after serving that term:

• consolidating and clarifying details about the roles of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, including that the Speaker may generally delegate to the Deputy Speaker, and that the holders of those offices on the polling day of a general election retain those roles until the first meeting of the House:

• changing the process by which membership of the Parliamentary Service Commission is arranged so that the House does not appoint members; membership will consist of the Speaker and 1 member of every recognised party, with parties with 30 or more members also being represented by a second member who is not a Minister or a Parliamentary Under-Secretary:

Seems like a sensible modernisation.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.